I just laugh at how these Elitist Wilsonian types love to invade countries to spread Democracy, yet have little skin in the game. The latest hypocrite is Progressive Republican Mitt Romney. Romney never served and neither has any of his kids. Clearly military service is beneath him since his time is better served destroying companies and sending jobs overseas.
Romney who claims to be a hawk, chickened out went his turn came up. The Mormon Church got raft a deferment for Prince Mitt during the Vietnam war. Instead off putting his money with his mouth is, he went to France to do missionary work. Does anyone thing Romney actually did missionary work in France? He probably was partying with French women, while other Americans were dying for their nation in the jungles of S0utheast Asia.
As the Vietnam War raged in the 1960s, Mitt Romney received a deferment from the draft as a Mormon “minister of religion” for the duration of his missionary work in France, which lasted two and a half years.
Before and after his missionary deferment, Romney also received nearly three years of deferments for his academic studies. When his deferments ended and he became eligible for military service in 1970, he drew a high number in the annual lottery that determined which young men were drafted. His high number ensured he was not drafted into the military.
[...]
By serving as a missionary and being given the deferment, Romney ensured that he would not be drafted from July 1966 until February 1969. Romney’s draft record from the time describes him as “minister of religion or divinity student.” Mayo said the church would have considered Romney a minister.
[....]
At the same time, Romney said, he was influenced by the statement of his father, then-Michigan Governor George W. Romney, who said in 1967 that he had been “brainwashed” by US officials about Vietnam. “When my dad said that he had been wrong about Vietnam and that it was a mistake and they had been brainwashed and so forth, I certainly trusted him and believed him,” Romney said.
Read the rest: Mormon church obtained Vietnam draft deferrals for Romney, other missionaries
If Mitt Romney avoided service because he was against the Vietnam War, fine. However, he wants a Hawkish foreign policy that will involve the lives of many young Americans. How about any of his kids joining up for service? Oops, they are too good for that as well.
A woman at an Ask Mitt Anything forum earlier today in Iowa raised the question again, asking whether any of Mr. Romney’s five sons are serving in the military, adding pointedly, “If none of them are, how do they plan to support this war on terrorism by enlisting in our U.S. military?”
Although his campaign said his remarks were taken out of context, Mr. Romney’s response is drawing criticism, because he said, in part, “one of the ways my sons are showing support for our nation is helping to get me elected.”
Mr. Romney expressed appreciation for the country’s “volunteer army” and said “that’s the way we’re going to keep it. He explained his sons had made different career choices in life and had not chosen to serve in the military but he mentioned a niece whose husband he said had just been called up by the National Guard.
So helping with a campaign is the same as military service? That’s insulting to people like my cousin and others who served and are mentally scared form this current war. This would not be a big dea, if he didn’t advocate wars without end nor have a Wilsonian Internationalist Interventionist agenda.
Mitt Romney is a chicken hawk and like Bill Clinton would be a Coward in Chief. This man is not fit to be President and Conservatives should focus on destroying Romney in the primaries. Mitt Romney is a Progressive and would damage the Conservative brand.
One correction Rodan. Despite what you think of getting a deferral for church missionary work, the LDS missionaries do not party with women. They aren’t even allowed to do more than shake hands with them. Any partying on the part of a Mormon missionary and they get discharged and sent home in a heartbeat.
Now if you have an issue with draft deferrals for religious service then please continue…
Mittens — In his own words:
Liberal Mitt’s Greatest Hits: What Romney Doesn’t Want You to See
@ Bureaucat:
I realize that to the Vietnam Generation it is always Vietnam, but the rest of us are over and done with that. So you marched in protest. Who shot at you for it? These people have nothing on the generation that stood on the field at Gettysburg or Antietam or Murfreesboro or Shiloh stuffing .58 caliber arguements down the muzzels of their rifles. Vietnam? Please.
I need no other reason to not vote for Romney than the fact that he’s being foisted by any means necessary on to the GOP nomination.
Call me petty, spiteful, irrational, stupid, traitorous, enemy, overreacting, the reason we’ll lose…I. DON’T. CARE.
Romneycare, Bain Capital, moderate policies, crony-capitalism, plastic physiology AND demeanor – all just helpful tools in the fight to let the GOP know who, in fact, the party answers to.
I seriously hope that it doesn’t come to me abstaining in the general. I will do everything possible during the primary season to avoid that decision.
@ Bureaucat: Americorp are the missionaries for OBama. They essentially replace $20 an hour jobs with part time $10 an hour jobs. They tour America looking for coke dealers in their spare time. (true story of the one I met in a bar) I suppose it was more descriptive of him than Americorp
For the record I’m a Mormon who supports Cain. I just wanted to correct the record on what Romney was likely doing in France- and it wasn’t playing around.
Bureaucat wrote:
He was in the Tour De France bicycling in black pants, a white shirt and a tie….
I don’t think anyone around here needs any more convincing that Romney isn’t a conservative and belongs to the more progressive (whatever that means these days) wing of the Republican party. But he’s head and shoulders better than Obama and while I will not support Romney in the primaries I will not hesitate to vote for him in the general election, if he’s the nominee.
Cheap shot, Rodan. Mitt Romney did nothing illegal. Many people asked for and received draft deferments, and many of those deferments lasted up to when Nixon stopped the draft. I never applied for a deferment, but I signed up for the draft, was assigned IH status.
Viet Nam was a load of shit and those that went there came home and told everyone they could to avoid it as best they could. I am so over hitting Republicans over the head with Viet Nam bullshit. Last I checked Obama not only didn’t serve, but has a fake social security number. I don’t give a shit who runs against him. They are all better. But by the time conservatives get through trashing each other he will probably get re elected.
Mitt Romney is a chicken hawk and like Bill Clinton would be a Coward in Chief. This man is not fit to be President and Conservatives should focus on destroying Romney in the primaries. Mitt Romney is a Progressive and would damage the Conservative brand.
Funny I thought conservatives might want to focu on beating Obama.
@ kansas:
Ditto that.
@ kansas:
Not ditto that.
Give it a rest Rodan. We all know you hate Romney. Keep to legitimate arguments. Attacking his failure to serve in Vietnam because he was a missionary? Is that the best you’ve got? Isn’t his rhino stays and liberal elite attitudes enough? Prop up your guy and attack Obama. Slinging mud and pushing false info is cheap.
@ kansas:
in primary season we decide who runs against 0
unification of message happens at the convention. right now we fight.
father_of_10 wrote:
like his destroying jobs while at bane capital?
my uncle and his friends would like to talk to him about that, ya know, one on one.
@ father_of_10:
hey, wait a second…i am throwing a bullshit flag on this.
my dad, and two of his friends who i am golfing with in the AM didn’t get a religion deferment for viet nam because they would have had to join the seminary and commit to a life long service to the catholic church as a priest. the catholic church doesn’t grant ‘minister’ status to someone on a relief/evangelizing mission.
so lds gets to get their guys out of the fight by sending them wherever by calling them minister and the catholics send their boys to fight. wow! is that setup ripe for abuse in lds! sorry, that’s how i see it.
hmmm….i want to compare my orthodox parish’s list of war dead and veterans with the lds parish up the street…really, i do. this is bugging me a bit.
can i get some clarification?
Mormon missionaries have been getting deferments from the draft for about 100 years. The mission is a two year full time commitment. While missionaries, they are not allowed to go to college, date or do anything except missionary work in the area they are assigned to. At the end of the mission, the deferment is over and they become draft eligible again. As far as military service, the LDS church is vastly over represented, both enlisted and in the officer corps. Mormons have been fighting and dying for this country for a long time, even after the United States government declared war on the Mormons in 1857. Prior to that, it was the Mormon Battalion that completed what I believe is the longest march in US military history (2000 miles). Practically every male member of my family has served this country beginning with WW1 and most of us served the Church as missionaries too, either before or after military commitments.
Using Romney’s missionary deferment to denigrate the Mormon’s service to this country is a non-starter.
@ father_of_10:
thank you for the clarification.
so romney and his 5 sons are outliers in the lds tradition of serving in the military.
coldwarrior wrote:
I think the Romney family are outliers in many things! The over representation in the military of the church is in relation to the percentage of Mormons in the military as compared to the percentage of Mormons in the general population. I am seeing more Mormons join the military than ever before right now.
@ father_of_10:
you get last word on this.
thx for the clarification.
@ father_of_10:
I can verify that from recent experience.
@ Bunk X:
I was quoting the author about Romney.
@ coldwarrior:
You would think we pick our candidates but truth is the MSM picks them. Looks like they are currently with Cain.